Weight And Menstrual Cycle: How Does Weight Gain Impact Your Period?

Gaining weight can have an impact on your menstrual cycle—either positive or negative. Here's everything you need to know about weight gain during your period.

Weight And Menstrual Cycle: How Does Weight Gain Impact Your Period?

Weight gain during period: A weight shift may cause you to go from irregular to regular, or it may cause your periods to become irregular or halt entirely. It relies not just on where you began but also on how much you gain or lose.

An average menstrual cycle lasts 28 days and can range from 24 to 38 days. A typical cycle lasts from two to seven days, with five days being the average. According to studies and experts, if you're overweight or underweight, your periods are more likely to be irregular.

How Weight Affects Your Period?

Your menstrual cycle may change if you are underweight or overweight. Your ovaries and brain work in a sophisticated way to produce the menstrual cycle.

Ovulation is brought on by changes in particular hormone levels, and your menstruation is brought on by further hormonal changes. Your body can cease ovulating if something prevents this interaction from occurring. You won't have a period if you don't ovulate. 

Your weight and the amount of body fat you have have an impact on your hormone levels. You could skip periods if you are underweight and have too little body fat. Missed or heavy periods are another side effect of being overweight. Your menstrual cycle may also be hampered by abrupt weight changes.

Getting to a healthy weight will probably start your monthly period again if you are underweight or extremely overweight and not menstruation.

Effects of Weight Gain

Your menstrual cycle might be affected by weight gain in several different ways. You can notice a difference in your menstrual cycle if you were starting at a normal weight and weight increase causes you to enter the overweight or obese categories. Putting on weight may help your cycles function normally if you are underweight and not receiving your period.

Infrequent Periods

Women who were average weight before gaining enough weight to become overweight may start to experience irregular menstrual cycles. A hormonal imbalance brought on by an increase in adipose tissue, or body fat, might prevent ovulation. Extra oestrogen produced by adipose tissue can interfere with ovulation and result in missed periods.

PCOS, also known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is a frequent cause of missing periods in obese women. You may experience missed periods and ovulation problems due to PCOS. Additionally, it makes the ovaries overproduce androgens, a hormone associated with the male sex that disrupts the menstrual cycle.

Heavier Periods

Obese women are more prone to have heavy menstrual cycles and unusual uterine bleeding.6 This is most likely because obesity-related systemic inflammation might put off endometrial repair and raise monthly blood loss.

Normal Cycle

Your body experiences less stress when you put on weight due to a low BMI. This enables your body to ovulate once again and menstruate as a result. Additionally, it safeguards your bones and helps your body's creation of oestrogen.

Treatment

Regular menstrual cycles are a reliable sign that your body is relatively hormonally balanced. Both extremes of being extremely underweight or extremely overweight cause hormonal imbalances that cause your periods to cease and can eventually result in major health problems.

Gaining or reducing weight to reach a healthy BMI is a common way to treat hormonal imbalances. Consult your doctor, a nutritionist, and even a personal trainer before beginning a strategy to gain or lose weight. If you are overweight, you should aim to lose fat rather than lean body mass, and if you are underweight, you should aim to acquire lean body mass rather than merely fat.

(This article is meant for informational purposes only and must not be considered a substitute for advice provided by qualified medical professionals.)